The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-08-13
seen ES ABROAD.
Customs In Italy and Germany as
Observed by Rev. J. w. Bashford

Observed by Rev. J. w. Bashford
An interesting letter. dateda at Dresden,
Saxopss. t-aaJ boon received by Mr. George L.
Kimball from Rev. DIR. J. W. Bashford. who
with Mrs. Bashford is spending a delightful
summer in Europe. The following is the
letter in full, exceptinga few private mes
sages to personal friends:
"Since touching at Gibraltar MAY
Sd we have had the June weather of Maine I:
and as we are now at 81 degrees north lati-
tude and soon start further north, for Berlin.
we do not anticipate much summer heat.
we spent six weeks in Italy. Our impress
SONS Of the Italians are ON the whole quite
favorable. They are not dull or a lazy peo-
pie. They do not work as rapidly as Ameri-
cans, but the farmers begin work at three or
four o'clock in the morning. sleep two hours
at noon and then work on until dusk. They
usually secure from ten to twelve products
from the soil each year, by cultivating five
crops in succession and part of the time cul-
tivating two or three products simultaneous
ly. was shown volcanic land around Ma
pies, Sorrento, &C., which yields from $500
to $500 worth of products each year. The
Italian farmers are not lazy. The Italians
seem to me cramped for opportunities to earn
good livelihood. Thirty millions of peo-
pie in territory which, if l remember cor
rectly, is less than five times the size of
Maine, and much of it mountainous, may
well be crowded. do not wonder that the
Italian government is trying to plant colo
MES.
NAPLES has been called the New York of
Italy, Rome the Washington, Florence the
Boston and Milan the Chicago. Milan and
Turin are the most thoroughly modern cities
in the peninsula. Happily we have no city
corresponding to Venice. She has been de-
Ginning for three hundred years. The dis
covery of the southern route to India left her
out of the great line of commerce between
Europe and the East, which she occupied
during the Middle Ages. Her greater dis
lance fiom Western Europe to America as
compared to other Italian cities, her near
ness to Austria and above all the corruption
which her wealth had produced in her kept
her out of the great movements of the Re-
Nuisance and the Reformation and led her
to foster the reactionary spirit of the mother
Church and of the eastern world. Upon the
other hand Venice is not far enough east for
her people to feel at home in the sluggishness
OF oriental life; and so she shares the fate of
men and cities and eras which stand upon
the borders of two antagonistic forests
plundered by each and respected by neither.
have never seen another city in which the
stroke OF the horses. hoof upon the pave
ment is never heard, in which the people
have SO little to do and yet in which SO far
from turning each day into a holiday the
people seem dying of ennui Every day
seems like the 9th of July. And yet st.
Marks church, especially as seen with Rus
one of the finest churches in the world
The Italian language does not impress us
as being so sweet and musical or the German
language as SO harsh as we expected. am
inclined to think that the difference between
these languages consists not so much in the
sounds-though the Italians make more of
the v0wels-as in the more sonOrous words
which the Italians use. Here are some of
the Italian names which we see upon signs
with their English equivalents: Signor Clio
yannl Verdi, Mr.. John Green francesca
Rossl, Francis Red; Giacomo Gallini, James
Hen ;Slgnor CaSciaro, Mr.. Cheeseman: while
Signor Giovanni Pgnatelli is simply Mr..
John Potts. The Germans are as remarka-
bic for the candor and literalness of their
speech as the Italians for pompous diction
The sculptor In German is the picture newer
the saloon is drink hall. the carpenter is
the room man or the chamber man, the man
who makes rooms; architecture is building
knowledge; the agriculturalist is the land
worker. You can judge from these speci-
mems which is the more sincere and straight-
forward people.
I'm Naples strange penalty has befalen
the Italians for their untrustwOrthineSs, and
especially that class who even in our own
country do not make virtue of the ninth
commandment-the milkmen. The Neapol-
ltans Insist that all the cows and goats which
supply the city Of 100000 inhabitants with
milk snail be driven through the streets and
mixed before the purchasers ewes. The
goats are led up the stairs to the third and
IourLn stories to save the purchaser the
trouble OF coming down to see the milking
dome l trust the American miIkmen will
See ene IsaIIul doom awaiting them if thew
pursue their downward course and aovar1
themselves accordingly.
I'VE were almost painfully strpol NTH A.
quletness of the Italian and Swiss chiidr eno
They seem either not to have enongh ot ~
eat or else they are sterniy taught onietnesS
and self restraint. We see more signs %
life and enjoyment among the German chill
dren. But they are far less boisterous and
self assertlve than American children. By
the way we have not seen boy selling news
papers or backing boots in Germany This
work is done by men or women.
German and Swiss dogs too have not vet
escaped the primal curse pronounced on
Adam and passed on by him and his descend
ants TO some of the domestic animals, and
risen to that state of luxurious ease which
dogs enjoy in America. InDumerable milk